600% rise in hospital waiting times

The number of people waiting more than a year for hospital treatment has surged 600% since December.

Figures detailed in the HSE’s latest performance monitoring report show the rise occurred between December and May, signalling a serious problem for Health Minister Leo Varadkar as he battles to bring the sector in line.

Under targets set by former health minister James Reilly, no one was to wait longer than 12 months for an outpatient appointment and longer than eight months for an inpatient appointment by the end of last year.

In December, 4,937 people were waiting more than a year for a consultant outpatient appointment for a raft of conditions including neurology, cancer, orthopaedics, and heart problems. This was significantly down on the 91,185 people waiting the same time for an outpatient appointment in May 2013.

However, at the end of May last, the level had surged back to 28,185 — a 600% jump on December — with a 5,400 rise in people waiting between April and May alone.

The rise is also occurring among inpatients, with 5,278 waiting nine months or longer for this form of hospital care at the end of May compared to just four people in December.

While health service officials have been keen to stress overall waiting list improvements, even in this category slippage is apparent.

At the end of May, 343,412 people were waiting for an outpatient appointment compared to 300,752 in December, with 50,689 waiting for inpatient appointments compared to 44,870 at the start of the year.

A HSE spokeswoman said “streamlining referral processing” improvements are taking place, but did not address the significant rise in figures since the start of the year. Instead, she said the number waiting more than 12 months for outpatient help has fallen significantly since last summer.

She said that “in the region” of 16% of patients on waiting lists do not attend their appointment, further reducing rates.

A spokesman for Mr Varadkar said while it is “regrettable” that “waiting lists tend to increase in the early part of the year”, the figures are still “significantly better than that at the equivalent date in 2013”.

He said efforts to address the issue are “continuing... in the face of significant financial challenges”.

Irish Patients Association chairman Stephen McMahon said the waiting lists increase is a cause of concern as it indicates a wider system “log jam”.

He said the figures suggest while there was an attempt to reduce the number of people waiting over the target times at the end of last year, this effectively involved “massaging” figures.